Energy Analysis of 4625 Office Buildings in South Korea

Ki Uhn Ahn, Han Sol Shin and Cheol Soo Park
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Ki Uhn Ahn: Institute of Engineering Research, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, South Korea
Han Sol Shin: Department of Architecture and Architectural Engineering, College of Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, South Korea
Cheol Soo Park: Department of Architecture and Architectural Engineering, Institute of Construction and Environmental Engineering, Institute of Engineering Research, College of Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, South Korea

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-16

Abstract: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relevance of building thermal performance and characteristics to building energy consumption. This paper reports an energy analysis of 4625 office buildings in Seoul, South Korea, using data from the Korean national building energy database and architectural database. The following four research questions were investigated: (1) Do old buildings consume more energy than new ones? (2) Have strict prescriptive building energy codes contributed to the reduction in energy use intensity (EUI, kWh/m 2 ·year) over the past several decades? (3) What are the characteristics of building energy consumption in terms of season, age, and cooling system (electric chiller vs absorption chiller)? (4) Which factors in the Korean building energy database are relevant to building energy consumption? The analyses revealed that, contrary to common assumptions, new buildings did not always consume less energy than old buildings, and it may be wrong to attribute intensification of prescriptive building energy codes directly to building energy efficiency improvements. In addition, the building characteristics (i.e., district, year built, number of floors, number of elevators, and total floor area) available in the Korean building energy database do not adequately explain building energy consumption, and the existing data collection method needs further improvement.

Keywords: building energy; database; old buildings; heating and cooling; performance gap; rebound effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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